We must stop veteran suicides: Join Steve in the 22 Pushup Challenge

Would you do 22 push ups a day for 22 days to raise awareness for the high suicide rate of combat veterans? That's what many are dong on social media and that's what I was nominated to do by my friend and coworker, Eric Potts, a veteran himself,
who's also taking the challenge.

This all began when Army paratrooper Gabe Gonzalez posted a video of himself doing 22 push ups a day for 22 days on Instagram with the hashtag #22KILL.

A study published in 2012 suggested that an average of 22 veterans kill themselves every day. While that conclusion is controversial — some say it’s probably lower, while others argue it's actually much higher — everyone agrees that whatever it is, it’s too many. I've taken on this challenge and would like to include you as well, since I have to nominate someone every day for 22 days.

If you'd like to be a part of this, please e-mail me at steve.trevelise@townsquaremedia.com — if you're OK with it, I'll mention your name and why you are doing this on New Jersey 101.5. Feel free to give a shout out to anyone you want. Each day I will post on Facebook and tweet it out @realstevetrev Hopefully, you can join me.

Here are the rules:

Once you are nominated, your 22 days start the following day.

Every day you record yourself doing 22 push-ups. Try your best to reach 22. If that means doing assisted (from your knees) push-ups or that you have to stop and take a break that's fine but try to get them all done in one video.

Every day you must nominate a different person. Try to choose people you think will want to do this and/or have the ability to do it.

Finally, have fun with this. This is a simple and fun way to get the word out about a matter that more people need to be aware about. These brave men and women put their lives on the line to protect our freedoms and its sad that so many veterans feel that suicide is the only way out.